How to make flaky pie pastry

There’s nothing quite like the flake and puff of pastry. A style that sits somewhere between shortcrust and puff, it’s best made by hand – a quietly meditative process. The butter is worked into the flour using a French patisserie technique known as fraisage, where it’s smeared across the bench with the heel of your hand. This creates thin sheets of butter throughout the dough; as they melt in the oven, steam forms and creates air pockets, which give the pastry its signature…